Thoughts I've thunk while sippin' at a cup of tea and reading something provoking, often get dropped here for the benefit of humanity and my own hubris.
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The following quotes, are from Ursula LeGuin's rendition of the Tao Te Ching. While her version may not be the most accurate (she is not a Chinese scholar), I find that her version is very poetic and portrays a different perspective.
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Everybody on earth knowing that beauty is beautiful makes ugliness. |
Everybody knowing that goodness is good makes wickedness. |
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To bear and not to own; To act and not lay claim; To do the work and let it go: |
For just letting it go Is what makes it stay. |
Wise souls leaving self behind, move forward.
Setting self aside, stay centered.
Why let the self go? To keep what the soul needs.
Can you keep the deep water still and clear,
So it reflects without blurring?
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Thirty spokes Meet in the hub Where the wheel isn't Is where it's useful. |
Hollowed out, Clay makes a pot. Where the pot's not Is where it's useful. |
The profit in what is Is in the use of what isn't. |
The ten thousand things arise together;
In their arising is their return.
Now they flower, and flowering
Sink homeward, returning to the root.
The disordered family
Is full of dutiful children and parents.
The disordered society
Is full of loyal patriots.
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Be broken to be whole. Twist to be straight. Be empty to be full. Wear out to be renewed. |
Have little and gain much. Have much and get confused. | |
| --Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, 22 |
Heaviness is the root of lightness.
Stillness is the master of movement.
The world is a sacred object.
Nothing is to be done to it.
To do anything to it, is to damage it.
To seize it, is to loose it.
To live till you die
Is to live long enough.
Obedience to law is the dry husk
Of loyalty and good faith...
The wise abide in the kernel not the husk.
Jade is praised as precious, But its strength is being stone.
Is enough to know.
--Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, 46
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Who knows doesn't talk. |
Who talks doesn't know. |
Be one with the dust of the way,
Then you can't be controlled by love or by rejection.
You can't be controlled by profit or by loss.
You can't be controlled by praise or by humiliation.
Study the hard while it's easy.
Do big things while they're small.
The hardest jobs in the world start out easy,
The great affairs of the world start small.
The tree you can't reach around grew from a tiny seedling.
The nine-story tower rises from a heap of clay.
The ten-thousand mile journey begins beneath your foot.
People whose power is real fulfill their obligations;
People whose power is hollow insist on their claims.
True words aren't charming,
Charming words aren't true.
People who know aren't learned,
Learned people don't know.
© 2000-2005, Howard Abrams • Except where otherwise noted, all original content is licensed under a Creative Commons License (see details).
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